Diversity is key to city's success

The good news is that Sheffield is the second fastest growing city in the country.

The bad news is that Leeds is the fastest.

“We’re all part of Yorkshire,” laughs Nigel who sees a bright future for Sheffield.

“The key is to be diverse,” he said.

“We are building the city’s future on more diverse industries like advanced metals manufacture, media, medical, IT, aerospace and the two universities have a great part to play.

“We have started the revitalisation but we have not transformed things yet. An area’s industry has to move quickly these days or it will miss the boat. The Chamber has played its part in that. We train 4,500 people a year, we have over 2000 members. There were 400 export companies in Sheffield when I came into this job, now there are four times that many.